May 6, 2013

Geode to Joy: Jasper's Providence Home Geode Grotto

Rock gardens and grottos are a long-standing Roman Catholic tradition, especially in Europe. Religious shrines dot the U.S. map, too, often tucked away in lesser-known locales. Many of these shrines employ natural materials like stones, shells, and bones as examples of “God-made” beauty. The Providence Home Geode Grotto in Jasper shows how one devoted designer went kind of wild with local materials.

Father Phillip Ottavi of the Sons of Divine Providence became director of St. Joseph’s Providence Home, a care facility for mentally disabled men, in 1953. He conceived the notion of creating something spiritual and beautiful on the site of the home’s demolished handball court. An Italian immigrant, Ottavi based his plan on the famous Grotto of Lourdes in France.

When a colleague discovered a large supply of geodes in a creek nearby, Ottavi had his grotto material. Rough on the outside and beautiful on the inside, geodes presented a nearly perfect representation of man’s body and soul.

Working with a crew of Providence Home residents, over a span of ten years Father Ottavi constructed a spectacular rock garden covering four city blocks along Bartley Street. “No blueprints, just inspiration,” one builder recalled.

The rock garden—equals parts sculpture, folk art, and landscape architecture—is a visual surprise in a neighborhood of modest homes on quiet streets. A pair of shrines, one to the Mother of God, and the other to St. Joseph, joins a festival of planters, benches, bird-baths, fountains, walls, pillars, and lamp-posts, all constructed from geodes, carved limestone, bits of marble and found objects, even pieces of the home’s original 1880 building, set into poured concrete.

The Providence Home welcomes visitors to explore the Geode Grotto any time for peaceful contemplation or to admire the joyous artistic intersection of nature, art, and religion.

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